MAORIS IN MELBOURNE

Southland Times, Issue 14580, 22 November 1910, Page 5

MAORIS IN MELBOURNE

LADY DUDLEY AT THE MAORI VILLAGE. On a recent afternoon Lady Dudley and other visitors from Government House paid a visit to the Maori Village at the Exhibition, and had a rousing reception (reports the Melbourne Age). The olive-skinned 'Polynesians are intensely fond of ceremony. When her Excellency and party entered the main hall, two Maoris, Tiki Papakura and Apiro Taiawhlo, specially trained for the ceremony, went forward with, strange gestures to welcome them. Lady Dudley walked and talked with Maggie Papakura, principal lady, and Mita Tan Popoki, chief of the company, while the two “challengers” led the way to the main male body of the tribe, who. rising from their knees, danced, roared and screamed forth a welcome beside which the triumph of Sciplo would have seemed tame and lacking in spontaneity. The women’s welcome was more subdued and melodious. “Welcome, distinguished visitors from beyond the skies,” they said in their native tongue. Then, in the arena, Mita Tan Popoki delivered, to an accompaniment of marvellous bodily gyrations, an impassioned address, to which Lady Dudley replied, thanking the Maoris for their “beautiful, graceful welcome," which she and her friends "would never forget.” In conclusion she said, “God bless you all.” Then the visitors were entertained with war hakas, poi dances and the richly sonorous singing of Iwa (Miss Eva Skerrett, Bluff) with a voice of much promise.